It’s difficult to gauge how much we actually need to eat. Our society is drawn to big portion sizes. We see commercials with mounds of food on huge plates. Hence, the amount of food we assume we should be eating at each meal continues to grow. But don’t blame the food companies, they’re just doing their job. If you ran a company that happens to sell food, you’d want your profits to grow each year, just like any other company. Problem is: your consumers only need a finite amount of your product. If you want profits to grow, you’re going to have to sell more to each person. So, you must condition people to eat a percentage more – 5%?, 8%? – than they ate last year, if you want a 5 to 8 percent sales increase. You have to keep doing that each year. And this is what has happened. Companies have a finite number of buyers, so they have to sell more to each of them. So the size of the meals have grown.

And it’s worked. It’s penetrated our psyche. Who is not disappointed when the waiter serves them the smallest dish at the table. It might be the most delicious, but if it’s pathetically smaller than what other people got, we feel a little slighted, if just for a moment.

But the point is that this tendency to desire larger meals leads to eating more than you need. Let’s face the facts: The more calories you eat past your metabolic needs, the more weight you are going to gain. Sure, you can lie to yourself and say you’re going to exercise it off, but with each extra bite you’re making that exercise promise a taller and taller order. Most of us spend hours of our busy work schedule sitting in front of a computer. Sitting. Plopped there. In a comfortable chair. Our fingers are moving. Our eyeballs are moving. Our brain is cranking. But we’re not burning the calories during the workday that people did years ago. Yet we eat larger meals than they did.

But don’t fret. I came up with a solution. It’s simple. And it works.

One of the tricks I tell my nutrition clients (who are supposed to be counting their calories as they prepare each meal) when they go to restaurants is to ask the waiter for a to-go box before eating the meal. Put half the meal in the box and tuck it under your chair while you enjoy the other half as your dinner. That always works pretty well. You’re typically satisfied when you finish. You ate far less calories. You avoided the post stuffed-stomach food coma. And you have the added bonus of another tasty meal ready for you to heat up for lunch tomorrow.

So I thought: Why not do this every meal? What would happen then? You simply prepare exactly what you would normally eat for a meal – without obsessing about portion-size or caloric measurements, then as you’re about to put it on your plate, only serve yourself half of it, and pack the other half away for later.

Well, I tried this myself. Gave it a test run. I have to say.. I think it is the best way to eat. Now, there are some rules you have to abide by, but they are designed to make this as user friendly as possible. The elements in the original nutrition program I wrote were: 1-Balanced Macronutrients, 2-Portion size based on your metabolism, and 3-Meal intervals / frequency. These ideas still all apply, I’m just making two of them a little more flexible. But at the end of the day it’s the same program, just easier.

The balanced meal doesn’t change. You must have each of your macronutrients in each meal. You need to be eating proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in a ‘zone’-ish type ratio: 25/25/50 seems to work well for most people. Let me add that you should try to do this with fresh vegetables as much as possible.

The portion size and the interval/frequency is where this new technique varies. But if you’re reasonable about this, it should work just fine, if not better. If you cut a meal in half, chances are it will contain less calories than a full meal. Pretty smart, aren’t I? The portion size element of the original plan was designed to keep you from eating more than your metabolism needs in one sitting. Well, if you cut even a regular American sized meal in half, chances are you’ll be below that threshold. The amount below your personal metabolic threshold that the calories in your half meal falls will be different for everyone. But your body will monitor this. …by letting you know when you’re hungry again. And guess what you get to do when you feel hungry again? …Eat. Eat what you just put away. How much of it? You guessed right… half.

The one rule I ask you to follow is the ten minute rule: You must wait at least ten minutes between finishing your first half meal and eating any more. Chances are in that time period you’ll find that you’re no longer hungry. The first half satisfied you. The hunger messages to your brain have ceased. You can now move on to whatever you do with your life and I bet you’ll probably forget about food for a bit- until it’s time for your next meal. If after ten minutes that didn’t work and you still find yourself hungry, well, your metabolism wants more. Cut the rest of that meal down the middle and eat half of what’s left. Wait another ten minutes. That probably did the trick.

If you manage to last the full four hours that you’re supposed to have between your meals, you can just eat the other half.. especially since you know that’s just about correct portion size for you. Also, you don’t have to keep cutting your meals in half to inverse infinity, I’d say a quarter meal is probably enough, although I have gone down to an eighth. At that point it’s more of a snack, which is fine. The ten minute rule still applies.

Eating this way spreads your caloric intake throughout the day. It gives you just the right amount of food you need at that time. And keeps your energy high. There are no sleepy food comas when you eat this way. You will feel like you have more energy throughout the day because of it. You don’t bog yourself down digesting and storing excess calories.

The beauty of this technique is that there will always be leftovers in your refrigerator. Calories that are now happily being stored in your fridge and not on your waist. And you won’t have to spend new money on every new meal. Most original meals will probably last you at least two eating sessions.

This may sound like a silly diet idea and it may look and feel weird at first. The disclaimer, of course, is that you have to be somewhat honest with yourself – you can’t just say, “Well, I was going to eat a barrel of baked ziti and tiramisu, now I’ll just eat half a barrel.” But if you are honest, it’s really simple. And it works. You’ll immediately have more energy, save money, and cut down on your calories. And if you hate it, screw it… you’ve got plenty of food in the fridge. But I think it’s worth a try. Or at least half a try.

And there’s always tomorrow morning. And there’s Now. Now is always a good time to resolve to make improvements in your life.

I think all New Year’s Resolutions boil down to essentially the same thing. Self Discipline. Whether you’re determined to lose weight, manage debt, quit smoking, find a better job, save money, exercise more, find time to volunteer, or reduce, reuse, and recycle more… it all comes down to self control. Much of this has to do with controlling consumption. We over consume calories, dollars, and hours when we over-eat, over-shop, and procrastinate.

Staying disciplined is the difficult part. We can all keep our commitments for a day or two. It’s the consistent regimen that’s tricky. Having accountability always helps. Having a deadline always helps. Specific goals with specific timelines give you the opportunity to experience the pleasure of succeeding. …and to feel that little rush regularly.

Just give yourself smaller, attainable goals. Goals that are stops along the way to your eventual greater desired destination. If you want to lose 50 lbs, don’t try to lose 50 right now, just lose two this week. If you want to pay off a 5 thousand dollar credit card debt, make yourself a bag lunch tomorrow and put ten dollars in a jar – do that three times this week. You’re making progress. Revel in the satisfaction of the small victory. Under-consume and take note every time you do; enjoy it.

Saying “No” to overconsumption gets easier. Allow your “No” to feel good. In fact, I’m making a declaration right now: If you are reading this, you must join me in agreeing to say at least one “No” to overconsumption each week. It must be a “No” to something you would like to, and normally would, say “Yes” to. Let it be… dessert. Or say “No” to the desire to hit the snooze button and sleep rather than go for a run. Say “No” to TV when you should just go to sleep. Say “No” to the impulse purchase you’re about to make.

That “No” is going to feel great. That “No” is your self-discipline. That one little “No” is going to vindicate every New Year’s Resolution you’ve ever tried. That “No” is your success. Say “No” to your friend or husband or boss when they invite you to do something that sounds pretty fun – but, you’ve already committed to your scheduled personal improvement time. Say “No” to them and get yourself to the gym. Say “No” and practice the violin. Say “No” and write that poem or that song or that screenplay or that fitness blog that you committed to do. That commitment was a promise you made to yourself. Don’t break promises to the most important person in your life. That “No” is your self-entitlement. That “No” is your victory. And each little victory feels great. Collect a bunch of them, and you’ll have yourself a championship.

Be stubborn. Enjoy every small win. Start Now.

To help you, if you’re in LA, I will be starting a new early morning cycle class at Cyclelates by Sunset and Vine in Hollywood on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30. Cyclelates.com There will be two free sneak preview classes Jan 24 and Jan 26.
I also have a few available personal fitness training early morning time-slots on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays in Pasadena at Classic Kickboxing. Email me if you want more information. Or go to ValentiFitness.com

Not only is it a popular metaphor, but running is becoming quite a popular exercise as well. It’s cheap. You just need a couple legs, a pair of sneakers, and twenty-six or so miles of reasonable terrain. I’m proud of my friend John Stelling who woke up one day recently and decided to run the Boston Marathon. …his first marathon ever. Luckily that decision didn’t come the morning of the marathon, but a few months beforehand. He trained thoroughly, like the brilliant and prepared guy he always is. In fact, by training so well, frankly, he spoiled the suspense for me. I read along as he blogged his experience. He got himself into such good shape, he ran a practice marathon the week before!! Come on, John, that’s cheating. You don’t train for a moon-landing by landing on a moon! Well, he did finished in under four hours. Quite an accomplishment. Amazing. Congrats!

What is running? And how do you get better at it? Is it just speedy walking? And how do people do it for hours on end for miles and miles?

Well, there are similarities to walking, sure, but there are also many differences. You can jog as slow as you walk if you want to, but you’re still jogging, aren’t you? There is a distinction. The similarities between the two are in the pronation of the foot and the internal rotation of knee during the stride, which loads the glutes like a rubberband – releasing that energy in the next stride. But when we run, we add to that firepower. It’s like we’re adding additional engines to the wing of a plane. Where is that second engine? When we run we spend much more time on the front part of our foot – the ball of your foot and the big toe. This extends the muscles, tendons, plantar fascia that go from our toes up through our calves. Loading this like a rubberband allows an extra explosive burst as we come through our strides.

In fact, this knowledge can help us improve our running abilities immensely. If you want to run a long distance, the name of the game is not burning yourself out too early. You want to conserve energy. We know this with our cars – a more efficient engine, with better mpg, can go further on less fuel. When we can harvest energy from our environment – as engineering students do with solar powered cars – we can drive forever. When we run, we can’t exactly harvest solar energy, but we can use the potential energy of gravity. If you keep your spine erect, your chin up, but then slowly lean forward until you are about to fall forward, gravity will pull you that way. If you then throw one foot forward to catch yourself from falling and you land of the center of that foot and glide up to the toes, you will be loading energy into that leg’s calves and associated tendons. This energy will then propel you forward during your next ‘fall’ into your next stride. If you keep this up, you will not need to generate as much energy through your legs and arms and core and gait, etc. You’ll literally let the earth pull you forward. Running can be a series of forward falls.

When I first heard about this technique, I thought it sounded too good to be true. I enjoyed running sometimes, but was never great at it. The day after I had this method explained to me, I tried it and ran twice as far as I normally could do, and I was hardly tired. I could have kept going. It was as if I was given a brand new set of legs. Although, that’s a little deceiving because running now involved not just kicking my legs forward, but also keeping my chest up and my spine straight as I leaned my full body, torso and pelvis, forward.

The first thing you need to do in all types of running, is make sure you are keeping great care of your calves and ankle complex. Stretch. Find an inclined platform. Stand on it one foot at a time, as if you’re facing uphill. You can also do this on the flat ground if you lean forward far enough. Keep your heel on the ground and lean forward to stretch your calf and ankle. Hold onto a wall or some type of support to help you balance, so you can get as deep as possible into this stretch. Then add dynamic stretching through all three planes – move forward and back, side to side, and rotate through the ankle inverting and everting your foot. Of course you also need to stretch your other leg muscles – hamstrings, quads, and glutes – but your calves need extra TLC; they take the most stringent beating since they will be absorbing the ground reaction force.

Proper posture for this run requires you to keep your chest up and shoulder blades back. As you lean forward with your chest up, focus on landing on the center of your foot, not toes, and certainly not the heel. With each stride, drive your elbows back – this will help add to the rotational force of your gait, which is loading and unloading your glutes in the transverse plane.

One aspect of this run technique that I like is if you want to run faster, you just lean forward further. By putting more of your body mass into the gravitational pull, you’ll accelerate. If you want to slow down, you lean less. It’s all a matter of how much gravity do you want to transfer into forward mobility. I’m not a racer, so the big advantage to me is the conservation of energy and the delayed muscle fatigue. Try it. I’d love to hear if it worked for you.

The other thing that is very healthy to do while you’re running – if you’re just running for fitness – is to change the direction you’re facing. Too much of a good thing always becomes a bad thing – ask any of my ex-girlfriends. When you’re just running forward in the same sagittal gait for hours at a time, you’re only going to train the muscles in that plane of motion. Look, you also have the ability to run backwards, right? And you can skip sideways or carioca (alternating feet front and behind) in either direction, can’t you? Well then, why limit your run to one direction and one plane of motion? Sure it looks funny, but as an exercise, it’s much more valuable to your daily functional mobility. You probably don’t realize how often you step to the side or step backwards in life. Pay attention to that this week – I bet you it’s more often than you think. Sure most of your life is moving forward, so most of your run can be running forward. But why not run one block backwards occasionally. Do cariocas down another block. Run a few steps then spin in a circle to the left; run a few more then spin to the right. This is the way you actually move. Don’t limit yourself in your exercise. Expand.

So, John… next year, if you try this stuff, you might have a little more energy left in your tank when you cross that finish line. Maybe you can do some circles and sideways skips as you break through that ribbon. That would keep it exciting and suspenseful. Come on, man. Entertain us.

Some of my friends have been surprising me by telling me that they are trying a plant-based diet due to reading these blogs and reading The China Study. So, this week’s edition is written to assist them in their new dietary navigation. Good luck rookies. And remember – read your food labels!

If you jumped in a cockpit and tried to fly a plane without taking a lesson or at least searching “operating an airplane” on Wikipedia, would you blame the crash on air travel in general? No, that wouldn’t be exactly fair. Similarly, just diving into a plant-based diet without planning and researching could be just as dangerous. Blindly eliminating whatever nutrition your body might be getting from meat could pretty much kill you. But don’t blame the innocent vegetable-eating lifestyle.

I tried giving up meat in college and I didn’t last a week. I felt horribly sick and lethargic. The doctor at the school infirmary introduced me to a new term, ‘protein,’ and suggested I put some back into my meals in order to avoid malnutrition. Apparently there wasn’t a lot of this stuff in beer and French fries, the remainder of my diet that week. Well, I’m back to the notion of truncating animal foods from my diet, only I’m somewhat more knowledgeable now. My plant-based diet leaves me feeling extremely healthy these days. I’ve learned that eating a balance meal sans animal products is simply akin to playing a daily game of “Find The Protein.” And just like Halo, Racquetball, or Texas Hold’em it may seem extremely confusing at first, but as you get better, the moves become almost second nature.

They say if you give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day – if you teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime. What if the whole lesson is to not eat fish? Anyway, I’m just going to give you the answers. I’ll just tell you what I like to eat. If you copy it – great. If it gives you ideas – great. If you have ideas for me – even better.

People’s protein needs vary based on age, weight, body composition, activity level, etc. Over eating protein is not a problem, because any excess protein not used as a building block, can be used as fuel. The best plant based sources for complete proteins are soybeans and quinoa (a grain relative of spinach I admittedly only recently discovered, but it’s tasty – and it seems to be an amazing food full of health benefits.) Some excellent vegetable protein sources are Broccoli, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Spinach, and yams. Beans and legumes that are rich in protein include Fava beans, Lentils, Red Kidney Beans, Black Beans, Navy Beans, Blackeyed Peas, Garbanzo Beans, and Lima Beans – and of course the best is edamame, which is simply an adolescent soy bean. Any salad with a healthy amount of these beans and vegetables mixed in will be a great balanced meal. Along with quinoa, other protein-rich grains include couscous, brown rice, barley, whole wheats, and oats. Eating the ‘whole’ or the ‘brown’ version of the grain is a good rule of thumb to follow; the bleaching process strips grains of much of their protein.

Plant-based diets have become so common that many companies are capitalizing on the movement and creating scores of tasty options that are mimicking meat products extremely well. If you choose to, you can more or less eat meals that look and taste identical to the ones you ate in your meat eating days. The difference in texture and taste is becoming so slight, none of my guests notice. When I have people over for cocktail parties or poker games, I serve the typical pizza, nachos, sausages, and my specialty – meatballs in my slow-cooker. Typical party grub. It’s all devoured. No one knows its meatless food. No one cares…. the alcohol is real. I make the pizzas in my oven with Daiya Cheese and Yves Meatless Ground (beef-like stuff – also great for chili). The nachos have the same Daiya cheese and Yves Meatless Ground or the Yves Meatless Chicken Strips – along with jalapeños and great salsa. The sausages are Tofurky Italian Sausage – Tofurky also makes a Beer Brat and a Kielbasa – let’s not kid ourselves here… it’s all about the mustard. Barbecue these guys up with onion and peppers then serve them with your favorite spicy brown, honey, yellow, horseradish, or Dijon and you’ll be just fine. But my favorite treat to serve is the Trader Joes Meatless Meatballs. I throw them in my crock pot with a couple jars of marinara sauce, maybe fry up some garlic, onions, and peppers to throw in with it … ah man, that stuff… its so good!!

There are two types of breakfasts I eat. When I’m rushed to get out the door, I simply have a cup of coffee and a protein bar. – soy based bars are easy to find. Soyjoy and Optimum Bars are good. When I have more time I’ll have either hot or cold cereal. In both cases I’ll mix in a scoop of protein powder with the cereal or the oats and stir it up before I pour the soymilk or water. I also add bananas, because they are yummy and are a terrific potassium source. On overly excessive days I’ll mix in blueberries too – they are ridiculously yummy and are among the highest flavonoid anti-oxidant value fruits. Just the thought of the two in my cereal sends my mind to breakfast nirvana. I can’t wait for morning!

Lunch and dinner are interchangeable. I might roll one of those Tofurky sausages up in whole-wheat lavish bread. I might cook up some pasta and have it with either one of these sausages or some of those meatless meatballs or even the meatless ground to make a hearty meat sauce. I’m Italian, so I happily make all these dishes parmesan with the Daiya cheese. The meatless ground also makes a good burger when mixed up with some bread crumbs as a binding agent. Stir frying any of those protein rich vegetables is also delicious. I’ll chop up some firm tofu to add to that stir fry. Big salads with plenty of beans is also a good way to go.

Snacking? I still try to make sure there is protein in my treats and snacks – every bite should be balanced. So, I will admit right now that I eat way too much of the Cherry and Chocolate Chip soy ice cream I discovered at Trader Joes. That ice cream and the weakness I have for trail mix keep my love handles intact, unfortunately. Trader Joes and Whole Foods both have a large selection of trail mix. To add protein to my trail mix binges, I add edamame – either raw or dry roasted. Another weakness of mine is grapes. I like most fruit, but grapes in particular. A sad part of giving up dairy was giving up yogurt, which I would eat with my grapes, but I found that Whole Foods sells a soy yogurt that tastes great… so I’m back in grape snacking business.

If you’re trying to eat a plant-based diet for all the disease preventing health benefits described in The China Study and all the compassionate reasons shown in Earthlings – or the dozens of other reasons one might try it (less strain on the world’s food supply, lower carbon footprint, less fossil fuels needed for transportation, etc), I hope this helps to give you some ideas.

At this point, you should at least be able to invite me over to dinner.

Balance is not standing frozen on a gymnastic beam or high wire. Quite the contrary actually, the muscles those athletes have are constantly firing. Having good balance is simple having the ability to recover quickly from falling. We are constantly moving from stability to instability, and then recovering again. It happens with every step we take, every time we reach out for an object, and every time we get up from a chair. There are many elements that help you master balance: your proprioception, your nervous system, your eyesight, your inner ear, and your muscular strength and range of motion. Walking, running, dancing, and general movement in every direction is essentially your body’s ability to absorb the force of a load one way and then create one another way.

Happily, it is pretty easy to improve your balance. It doesn’t necessarily take any of those wobbly contraptions you find at the gym. Unless you make your living at children’s parties, inside one of those inflatable moonwalker things or you want to make sure you have excellent fleeing ability during the next earthquake, we can train you on flat stable ground. Usually the world we live in has a pretty solid floor. So, rather than make you stand on a big plastic bubble, it might be safer, and cheaper, to just stand on your legs – one at a time. Make sure you’re wearing comfortable sneakers with good tread.

You definitely have to make sure you have plenty of flexibility. Full range of motion through the ankle, knee, and hip complexes will always help your balance. Start and end every exercise session with a stretching routine.

Lunges are an excellent balance exercise. Start with just straight up and down lunges until you master them. Separate your feet – one foot forward, one back, separated by a distance close to the length of your leg. Hold on to a chair or something for support. Then just lower yourself straight down. Drive your butt backwards to keep your forward knee behind the laces on that forward shoe. After you master this with some control, try it without holding on to that chair. Once you master that, put your hands together as if you’re James Bond or one of Charlie’s Angels holding a gun and rotate as you lower yourself. Once this is mastered you can start walking lunges across the room. First stay in the sagittal plane, then after you get the hang of it, add the Charlie’s Angel’s rotation with each step.

Another exercise we can do to simulate the functional balance we need in the world is a single step with a slight jump. Start off jumping forward, maybe only an inch further than your natural step would take you, then jump back. A lot of us have excellent balance through one plane of motion, but as soon as we try to move in another direction we run into trouble. Try the frontal plane. Jump a foot to the right and then back a foot to the left. Make sure you maintain control when you land. Once you master this, add the transverse plane – jump back about six inches as you turn ninety degrees. Then jump back. If you start off facing north, wind up facing east, landing on your right leg. Then jump back to face north, landing on your left leg. As you improve you can increase the distance of your hops.

The next balance exercise advancement might be life on a single leg. Stand on one leg and try to reach forward to touch an object – a wall, a traffic cone, a spouse… Step back until you find the distance that makes this reach difficult for you. Do a set of ten. Failing – having to drop your other foot for balance – is fine. Make these exercises difficult so that you improve. After you work the sagittal plane forwards and backwards (reaching back for the wall over your head), turn ninety degrees and try the frontal plane. Do ten on each leg while you reach to the right, then turn around and do ten on each leg while you reach to the left. You can work the transverse plane from this position by rotating and touching the wall with our outside hand.

When you really start to advance, do single leg squats and touch the floor. You can use all the same variations. To advance further, press a 5 or 10 pound dumbbell over your head as you stand.

Balance training, like all fitness conditioning, should be done in stages of gradual improvement. Don’t try to advance yourself too quickly to the more difficult exercise until you’ve mastered the simple ones. And don’t become frustrated. Know that this type of training is all about failure. How can you learn to recover from falling until you start falling? When you are constantly wobbling throughout these exercises, you know you’re doing them correctly. Always give yourself a safety net so you don’t actually fall – Do these exercises next to a chair or a wall or a spouse, something that you can grab on to if you do start to quickly dive towards the Earth.

And, in this day of cellphone distraction, I should remind you to watch where you’re going. There are plenty of broken sidewalks, sprinkler spouts, and general crap on the ground for us to trip over. In our day and age, we have electricity and lights; we have it easy. A couple hundred years ago tables and chairs were typically placed around the perimeter of a room so that people wouldn’t walk into them at night when trying to navigate through candlelight. We don’t have excuses like poor visibility. Although, technology has now become the obstacle… who doesn’t check their text messages as they walk down the street. You will trip. You will fall. But if you balance train regularly, hopefully you’ll recover before your dumb ass hits the ground.

We constantly need to rehydrate. Water is 60% of our body weight. When we lose some of it, we need to replenish the supply. It is a vital component of our survival. Water flushes toxins out, carries nutrients to cells, and provides a moist environment for ear, nose, and throat tissue. Another big responsibility of water is to regulate body temperature – in both hot and cold environments, and during exercise. When all those muscle contractions are generating excess energy and heat, it is our sweat glands that keep us cool so we can keep going.

How much water do we need to drink each day? Simple… the same amount you lose. Typically – and this is a generalization because we are all different – we lose about 2.5 liters (2/3’s of a gallon) of water through urine, sweat, breath, and feces each day – before exercise. Drink a little extra on days you exercise. Now, before you start peeing into a measuring cup, you don’t really have to worry about amounts. Your body has a pretty good feedback alert system called thirst. Listen to it. Dry mouth, dry throat, maybe a headache – drink some water. But, if you’re a numbers guy or a rule of thumb kinda gal, go with the Mayo Clinic’s 8×8 rule… eight glasses of eight ounces of water each day. Another idea is to just drink one glass of water at each meal and another between each meal. Remember that the water in your food also counts. A healthy diet that includes fruits and vegetables should amount for about 20% of your water requirements.

What about sports drinks and electrolytes? Shouldn’t my hydration fluid be bright green or blue? Hmmm… It is true that when you sweat you will not only lose water, but also lose some ions of calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, among others. Do you need to also replenish these minerals? Yes. Do you need to do it immediately, on the spot, in your next sip of a drink? No. If you eat a reasonably healthy diet, you should replete these electrolytes automatically in your meal. Now if you are competing in a highly intense athletic endurance event that will last over three hours, sure, Gatorade will help you gain an advantage at the end of the game or in the final few miles – those ions are part of the communication network that connects your brain with your muscles, so replenishing at the very end could give you a little lift. But for the majority of us exercising 45-90 minutes in a non-competitive environment, water is just fine. Actually it’s much better if your goal is weight loss. If you complete an hour of cardio burning 500 calories, then you drink 250 calories from one of those stupid sugar water sports drinks, aren’t you completely defeating the purpose?

Tap vs Bottled Okay, I’ll drink water, but which brand of bottled water should I buy? Dear Reader, if you are going to buy bottled water, please buy it from me. I would be happy to fill a bottle from my sink and sell it to you for a dollar – which is a pretty good deal, as you know from the coupons, commercials, and weekly sales specials in every store. I always feel old whenever I catch myself saying something like “I remember when…” But, I do remember – it was only in the eighties and early nineties – when the most absurd epitome of ridiculousness was the thought of bottling and selling water. “The next thing you know, they’ll try to sell you water in a bottle…” Well, they did it. Supermarkets have entire aisles just for all the different brands of water. There are hundreds of companies selling bottled water. Why shouldn’t they? It’s a hell of a mark up… anywhere from 240 to 10,000 times the cost of tap water. And don’t for a second think this water comes from a spring flowing in a magical land with nymphs and mermaids swimming through it. Aquafina, Nestle Pure Life, Dasani and other brands acknowledge right on the label or on their website that their water comes from municipal sources.

But bottled water must be better for you than tap water… NO, it is not! The EPA regulates tap water. The FDA regulates bottled water based on EPA standards. But FDA oversight allows regulatory loopholes for water bottled and sold in the same state – which amounts to 60 to 70%. The FDA lacks the authority the EPA has. The EPA forces laboratory testing on tap water frequently; municipal water supplies are constantly tested. Bottled water is considered a food and, thanks to lobbyists, the FDA cannot require certified lab testing or violation reporting. The FDA also does not require companies to disclose to consumers where the water came from, how it has been treated, or what contaminants it contains – (NY TIMES July 9, 2009 – read the part about how the FDA allows plastic softening chemicals to be included in the product – yummy).

Municipal water departments, like the LADWP, are constantly scrutinized about the quality of their water. All water quality reports are readily available on their websites. And, yes, they are honest about all fluctuations in the water quality, most of which, of course, are not at all dangerous – but they sure sound odd. A slight odor here… a slight green colorization there… All conditions are subsequently corrected. But open book honesty like that is easy to question and ridicule. The bottled water companies do not have to publish their quality reports and can use their massive advertising budget to make their water look pure – while your local news reporters scare you about your tap water. The truth couldn’t be more inverse. Now, sure, you’re probably going to be safe drinking either… but don’t let me hear you say bottled water is better for you!

In fact, overall it is much, much worse… for our environment. There’s that ‘bottled’ part of bottled water that we haven’t discussed yet. When you drink your tap water – maybe poured into a glass from a filtered pitcher you keep in your refrigerator like I do – you probably won’t immediately toss the glass you just used in the trash. In fact I bet you’ll wash and use that glass again tomorrow and again the next day. Can you imagine how many glasses you’d go through if you threw one away every time you took a drink? Absurd, right? It’d be thousands every year, wouldn’t it? You don’t just use a glass once then throw it away – you wash it out and use it again. Why on Earth do we do throw away plastic bottles after a single use? And it’s not only plastic bottled water bottles, but also plastic sports drinks and sodas, on and on.

Do you know what plastic bottles are made from? Oil. Yes, natural gas and oil. Fossil fuels. That same stuff that costs $4.50 at the pump right now. Why are we wasting it on all these plastic bottles? Not to mention the fact that it takes even more oil to transport the bottled water to your supermarket. If you poured the amount of oil it takes to make and transport a plastic bottle into that very bottle, it would fill the bottle up half way. Absurd again, right? Why are we doing this? It makes no sense. We’re wasting money and energy sources… but that’s okay, because we don’t really need either of those these days.

But here’s the true tragedy: Plastic pollution has gotten so far out of hand it may very well quickly lead to the end of civilization. That sounds dramatic, but if you read into what’s happening with the five continental-size swells of plastic debris in each of the oceans, you’ll see it’s a major problem that is quickly depleting all sea life of nutrition; this frightening situation is racing its way up the food chain. Plastic is not biodegradable. It is photodegradable, meaning only sunlight can eventually breakdown these polymer compounds. Even in direct sunlight, plastic could take 100s of years to disintegrate away completely, but in the cool ocean water, this process is slowed down to perhaps tens of thousands of years. But before this plastic can be disintegrated by light, chances are fish will try to eat it. And as the plastic does break down into smaller plastic pellets, smaller fish mistake it for food. If the plastic debris doesn’t outright choke the fish to death, the polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride the little swimmer absorbs into his tissue will work its way up through larger fish and eventually onto your sushi plate.

Plastic bags are another enormous source of unnecessary pollution. There is an excellent movie you should watch – Bag It – about the terrible plastic pollution situation we have created. It’s an urgent dilemma, which needs immediate solutions. I also recently read the book, The World Without Us, which explains everything we will leave behind. The overall point was that the earth will eventually be fine, even if it takes a few hundred thousand years to recover. Our pollution won’t kill the planet. Our pollution will just kill us. It’s as if the earth is a living organism and people and their pollution are an annoying virus. Just as our body’s immune system raises our temperature so we get a fever, creating conditions that kill a virus, something like that is what’s happening with the Earth – maybe ‘Global Warming’ is its fever and this natural immune system will purge that damn annoying virus, the human race and its pollution, from its system. The Earth will wake up in a cold sweat one morning – we will be gone – but the planet will feel a lot better.

So listen you, please stop single handedly ruining the environment I’m trying to live in. Bring a reusable bag with you to the grocery store and pour your chilled tap water into a reusable container and bring that with you to work and to the gym.

It’s simple. I think you know what you need to do.

Hydrate yourself without screwing up the entire world.

Our bodies were designed to walk. That ‘gait’ you hear physical therapists talk about whenever you hurt your back or your hip is an amazing little biomechanical contraption that propels us forward with impressive efficiency. It’s all built around your biggest muscle, your glutes, as the prime mover. But there’s much more going on. And, as you can tell from watching the cute butt you’re following as you walk down the street, most of the movement is in a twisty, rotational plane of motion. When you take a step and place your foot down in front of you, you are mostly landing on the outside portion of your foot. When your body glides over that foot, it pronates towards your center of gravity. The arch of your foot allows this give. That pronation causes internal rotation of the knee and femur, which causes internal rotation of your hip. When that hip internally rotates, it extends the muscle fibers of the glutes, which lie mostly in the transverse plane. That extended muscle acts like a rubberband that is being pulled apart – it is being loaded with energy that will then be released when that leg is behind you – the “rubberband” springs back, propelling the leg forward…. as the same thing happens on the other side. Your pelvis is rotating back and forth in the transverse plane, up and down in the frontal plane, and even forward and back in the sagittal plane. So all the muscles attached to your pelvis – your abs, obliques, spinal erectors, hamstrings, even the kinetic chains of muscle up to your neck and shoulders – each extend to absorb energy and then snap back to release the energy with each stride. This is why it’s difficult to walk when you hurt any muscle tissue in that chain, be it near your glute, back, or neck. But it’s also why walking is such a great exercise that burns so many calories – you’re using so many muscles.

So stretching before walking should include not only muscles in your legs, but also your abs and back – and especially your glutes. Since so much of the motion happens in the rotational and side planes, stretch yourself in the transverse/rotational plane and the side/frontal plane as well as the obvious forward/sagittal plane. Calves and quads are important to stretch of course, but your glutes and core muscles cannot be ignored; these are the primary movers, the engine driving you forward. Calves, hamstrings, and quad stretches are sort of like giving yourself an alignment job as you would your car – off alignment can damage the ankles and knees and make walking much less pleasant.

Continuing with this analogy, your footwear are your tires. What do you look for in your tires? Traction? And maybe a small amount of cushion? You don’t want to slip. Too many people forget about this when they buy shoes. Falling is not only terribly embarrassing, but also a sure way to seriously injure yourself. It just takes a small injury to your ankle, knee, or hip to ruin the flow of your gait… which will then cause larger problems in the future due to changes in your biomechanical path of motion and overcompensation by other joints and muscles. Buy shoes with strong traction and quickly throw them out when they wear down. As far as the cushion and support of your foot, your shoes should have some cushion… they should be comfortable, but remember – they’re the tires, not the shock absorbers. Your primary shock absorbers should be your muscles and the flexibility of your joints. We want to absorb energy in our muscles for our next stride. So, shoes with too much cushion will create a difficult walking environment because they absorb energy the way a deflating tire does. Also, too much cushion could cause an instable walking surface. Balance challenges are great while you’re exercising, but not during every step you take in your life.

Do you think I could make walking seem any more complicated? My sixteen-month-old nephew just figured it out. I’ll take full credit here. I explained the whole ‘gait’ concept to him. He nodded, got up, and walked across the room. Yes, the kid is brilliant and so is his teacher, but chances are he might have figured it out on his own. The important thing is, he loves it. I hope he never loses his enthusiasm for walking. Walking makes us feel better. There is a cerebral connection to it. Taking a walk calms you down and inspires your creativity. They walked in the bible. They march on Washington. And we walked on the moon. We don’t brag that we drove on the moon, or stood there, or had a picnic. We brag about taking a step. It’s all about walking. Sting sings about walking on the moon. James Taylor was the walking man. Johnny Cash walked the line. Even Huey Lewis went walking on a thin line. Walking is in our culture, it’s in our nature, it’s what separates us from the animals.

When it comes to walking, LA does have one thing over NYC. Drive north on any street in Los Angeles and you will eventually find a hiking trail. Taking a hike in New York means that you just annoyed somebody. But in LA it means you can walk freely without getting hit by a car. You’ll see dozens of happy dogs having their day. These hiking trails in LA make you feel as if you’re out of town, getting away from it all on some amazing adventure in the wilderness, but in reality there’s a Ralph’s and a Pinkberry around the corner – which, if you ask me, makes it enormously better. People are so friendly on these trails; everyone’s willing to help each other. They’re never that nice in the city. You can’t pass someone in Manhattan and say, “Hey, what’s up ahead? How’d you do on that crosswalk? Were those potholes rough?” But it’s a different world on these hikes. And we have so many in Los Angeles: Runyan Canyon, Griffith Park, Topanga, Will Rogers, and the Santa Monica waterfalls. Pasadena has the Arroyo, Echo Mountain, Eaton Canyon, and of course the Rose Bowl. These are all only a few miles away. You can do a quick circle during lunch or have a longer trek on the weekend. Take advantage.

And speaking of lunch… you can steal some free walks in LA just by parking your car a few blocks away from your restaurant. Valet is too expensive anyway and who can find parking on any of the major streets any more… There will always be a residential area three blocks away. Park there and walk. Just a few blocks. That 80s band won’t mind.

Look, New York has so many things over LA. New York has culture in museums and theater – LA has culture in yogurt. New York has The Jersey Shore – LA has Pauly Shore. Well, I guess that one’s a toss up. But the point is in LA – we have the permanent summer… We have to get out there and walk all over it.

The thing is… we can actually do something to lower our chances of dying from the leading causes of death. But there is no action you can take to lower your chances of experiencing a terrorist attack, a shark attack, a violent crime, or a plane crash – short of never flying, never going in the water, and never going out at night, which of course lowers your enjoyment of life. But even that extreme type of crazy caution is understandable for people who fear these spectacular deaths.

Most people understand that John Madden fears flying and they accept that he drives from NFL city to city each week in his bus – even though there is only a one in seven million chance of dying in a plane crash. Most people understand why their cousin Jill refuses to go swimming at the beach – even though there is a one in 265 million chance that she’ll die of a shark attack. But most people do roll their eyes when a person tells them they do not eat animal-based foods… even though 25.4% of deaths occur from heart disease and 23.2% of deaths occur from cancer. The hard science – like the studies conducted by Colin Campbell, outlined in his book The China Study – shows that this fear of meat is a lot more legitimate than fear of flying.

While cousin Jill is sitting on the beach eating her burger, tell her that 80% of the major diseases and premature death in our country could be prevented by changes in diet and lifestyle. Tell her the exercise she would get from that swim is much more likely to extend her life than Jaws is likely to shorten it.

Colin Campbell is a research professor at Cornell specializing in nutrition and has been on several US government-appointed nutritional boards over the past 4 decades. He grew up on a cattle ranch and was raised a meat and potatoes cowboy. He even did his PhD dissertation on animal-based protein. His enthusiasm for animal proteins – his life’s work – started to wane when he partook in some long-term studies in China and the Philippines. The data clearly indicated that cancer is a regional disease. It was far more common in affluent areas of these underdeveloped countries than in the poor rural areas. What was the nutritional difference between these two populations? One could afford to eat meat, the other could not. Studies also showed that when poor, but healthy, families became affluent and changed their diets, their rate of cancer rose to match the affluent rate. To be more specific, diets consisting of 20% or more of casein, the protein in milk, had enormous rates of liver cancer cases as opposed to diets that had less than 5% casein, which had almost no cases. This is just one small example of The China Study. There is an enormous amount of eye opening information in Campbell’s book I feel we should all consider.

According to Campbell, cancer is hardly the only disease a plant-based diet can deter. He lists: Heart Diseases, multiple Cancers, Type I and II Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s Disease, Cataracts, ADD & ADHD, Osteoporosis, Acne, Migranes, Depression, Gout, Kidney Stones, and even Hemorrhoids.

Actually the Hemorrhoid explanation is easy to follow. A plant-based diet will naturally consist of more fiber than an animal-based diet. There is no fiber in animal tissue; it’s indigestible and all animals push it out through their bowel movements …which is the point. Like birds that need to swallow bits of indigestible sand or other grit to assist in their digestion, we need fiber to assist in ours. Fiber creates bulk waste product in your intestines. Intestinal tracts are not just tubes that sit there as food passes through. They are active muscles that constantly squeeze your meals through the digestive tract. If there is no bulk substance for the intestines to easily squeeze, they have to work a lot harder to push the small bits and light watery substance through. This extreme effort by these intestinal muscles will require much more oxygen which will be delivered by blood. This excess of blood to the area will swell the surrounding veins, causing inflammation and Hemorrhoids. Incidentally, the thick bulk waste created by fiber also pushes out harmful carcinogens that might otherwise linger in your colon causing colorectal cancer.

The osteoporosis correlation to animal protein, sounds weird at first, but is actually also easy to understand. Our bodies cannot store protein. We either use it to build tissue or we excrete the excess amounts we don’t use. When metabolized, animal protein waste is very acidic, due to the excess nitrogen. Our blood must be kept slightly alkaline, so our bodies must work hard to neutralize this acidity by calling upon stores of alkalizing minerals, mainly calcium, which is mined from our bones. Once the calcium neutralizes the uric acid, the kidneys then excrete it all out as urine. You’re literally peeing your bones away. This same situation also exacerbates the chances of getting Kidney Stones and Gout.

Heart disease and strokes are more easily understood to be correlated with animal foods. Cholesterol is only found in animal sources. It’s extremely well documented how high cholesterol levels can lead to heart disease and serious circulatory ailments – essentially common knowledge, so I won’t even bother you with my layman’s explanation. Look, these days the information on the damage animal food products can do to human bodies is massive and readily accessible. And I think it is smart to consider… and healthy to fear.

But hold on… how can meat be so harmful to our bodies if we’ve been eating it for thousands of years and were designed to do so. Well, were we? Sure we do eat meat and can process it for energy, but is it the most efficient source of fuel for us? It seems to burn ‘dirty’ with ill effects. According to Dr Milton Mills, our physiology lines up closer to that of an herbivore than that of a carnivore with regard to intestinal tract design, alkaline saliva, stomach acidity, fiber requirements, cholesterol metabolism, as well as claws and teeth. Sure we developed the ability to hunt using tools and planning… but we had to wait for our brains to develop to an advanced stage to have the ability to put all these ideas together. By that time our digestive system had already developed – as a herbivore’s would, efficiently for plant-based food metabolism. We probably ate some insects that were easy to catch, so we can handle small bits of animal protein. But the large quantities we are eating today is not what we were designed to do, so our body’s entire system is being screwed up and is malfunctioning due to all these diseases. Similarly, we were not designed to inhale tobacco smoke… which also screws up the beautifully evolved bodies we have.

It’s said that new discoveries are first ridiculed, then argued against, then accepted as obvious. The disease deterring health benefits of a plant-based diet are a relatively new and, in some ways, radical idea. Radical only because we have been thoroughly conditioned to accept otherwise. If this blog plants even a seed of doubt in your mind about the healthfulness of your current diet, then I’m glad I wrote it. I’m just trying to instill a ‘healthy’ fear.

Building muscle is extremely important. The great thing about your body is that it will adjust to its environment. But it adjusts both ways. The human body will only have as much muscle tissue on it as it needs. If you apply stress to it, it will develop the ability to counter that stress. If you allow it to relax, it will adjust to the relaxation. This is why astronauts and bed-stricken patients become so weak. There are no forces acting upon their bodies in gravity-free outer-space. And bed-stricken people aren’t moving around, thus not creating forces against their bodies. They don’t use their muscles, so their metabolism decides they don’t need any – muscles are expensive, they cost a lot of protein and oxygen to maintain. So muscle atrophy sets in. It’s like cutting down on bills for services you don’t use anymore – “Are you watching HBO?” – “No. Not since the Sopranos ended” – “Well, then, we’re canceling and cutting down to just basic.” Whereas bodybuilders, lumberjacks, and athletes – people who constantly apply forces to their limbs and core – develop plenty of muscle tissue. They put their bodies in an environment where it needs to be strong. Their constant exercise is essentially a demand for more muscle.

As we get older we need to replace the muscle mass we will lose naturally from aging. It becomes more and more important to exercise and force our bodies to keep muscle on our bones. Keeping muscle on your bones will keep your bones stronger. The muscle strength will create a force on the bone creating a demand for continued high bone density. Without the need for strong bones, the body will allow bones to atrophy as well. We really don’t want brittle bones as we get older. Our skeleton holds us up. It’s our foundation. We need it strong throughout our lives. Building bone density in your youth is akin to having a terrific savings account for retirement – you can spend it later when you move to Florida. This is especially important for women, who become extra susceptible to osteoporosis after menopause. Strength training, at any age, will help build bone density and deter the terrible condition osteoporosis creates.

Regular strength training will also make your healthy diet more effective. It will condition your body to use dietary protein to build muscle – not to store as fat. If you strength train on a given day – fatiguing your muscles and stressing your bones – you will have some minor muscle and bone reconstruction that needs to be done. You’re feeding yourself building blocks. You want to make sure your body uses them. You don’t need to store a huge pile of two by fours in your back yard. That looks terrible. But if you used that pile and built a new deck… That’d look great. And all your friends will want to come over and party on it. You’re feeding yourself resources, make sure you use them.

Strength training can also help you lose weight…. and not just from the calories you burn performing the exercises. When you build muscle tissue your metabolism will increase. Muscle tissue is active tissue that constantly needs oxygen and glycogen whenever it moves. Your metabolism is directly related to the amount of muscle you have. More muscle = higher metabolism. Which means you’ll burn more calories. Think of your body’s muscle content like a car’s engine. The larger the engine, the more fuel it burns. So when you do 50 minutes of cardio, you’ll be burning more calories. It becomes easier to use up the extra stored fuel (fat). Your cardio exercise experience will also be more pleasant. Working out with strong, developed muscles that have the ability to balance and carry you is a lot more fun than suffering through sessions with small, fatigued muscle that complain the whole way.

The great thing is… you don’t need to strength train THAT much to gain all the benefits of strength training. Two or three times a week will suffice. If you’re smart and exercise with efficacy, a thirty minute strength training workout session should be plenty. You really only need to bring your muscles to fatigue once. But you do have to make sure you fatigue all your muscles. And fatigue them in different planes of motion, preferably planes of motion that reflect the planes you move through in life. Your balance and power begins in your core; make sure that is a major part of your workout program. None of this is that difficult. The typical difficulty lies in getting yourself to actual do it. Application. And to actually do it consistently. Make muscle building a part of your life.

So, if you want to live forever, you just have to last 34 more years? That’s incredible. If you have a child this year, according to these estimates, chances are you’re giving birth to an immortal. No wonder these vampire shows are so popular. Well, good for all these damn infants, they have it easy. They’ll just have to survive high school and sexual harassment in the workplace. They’ll make it to 2045 easily. But, much more importantly, what about us? I’ll be 75. Now, I’d certainly rather spend eternity as strapping 19 year old, but I guess I could be satisfied with a one-arm-push-up Jack Palance version of me. By then 75 will be the new 50, anyway. How old will you be? Can you see yourself as the healthiest version of that age? Remember, they’ll have reverse aging enzymes that year… you just have to survive until then.

So now that we have a target age, how do we get there? How do you extend your life? Well, there are few obvious places to start… Stop smoking. Wear your seatbelt. Don’t have an affair with anyone whose husband might come home early. But beyond not living recklessly, how do we treat this one organic vehicle we were given to keep it in pristine condition? Well, let’s be sure to upkeep all the systems to the best of our ability.

Keep your muscular and skeletal systems healthy. A regular and continuous strength-training regimen is vital. Strong muscles make for strong bones. You need to stay upright and mobile. You want to be functional in all planes of motion. Your balancing ability must stay keen. Make sure your reflex reaction time stays brisk. And take care of your muscles; Get massages regularly. Actively relieve muscle tissue adhesion caused by strain, trauma, or atrophy. Don’t allow knots to build up and limit muscle movement. This is how tears and other debilitating injuries occur. I DMS my client’s leg and shoulder muscles before every session to break up knots and release all the tissue so it can extend to it’s full length. My clients don’t get hurt. I swear by this thing. I DMS my legs, too. It’s why I can teach 7 spin classes a week. It keeps your muscles fresh. Keeps them young. This should be good for an extra decade or so.

Keep your cardiovascular, pulmonary, and circulatory systems healthy. A regular and continuous aerobic training regimen is vital. The demand for oxygen this type of exercise creates throughout your body forces your lungs and heart to work optimally which improves blood flow and expands even your capillaries. Reducing blood pressure and clearing buildup of plaque in your arteries will also help lower your risk of heart disease and strokes. Cardio exercise also burns fat, lowering your chances of obesity and risk of diabetes. Not dying of any of these things gives you a much better chance of 2045.

Keep your diet smart and your digestive system healthy. Nutrition is also within our control. Just like we have to cut out smoking, we’re going to have to cut the obvious junk foods and fast foods. Choose natural whole foods over mass produced, processed, sugar laden crap. Getting your carbohydrate needs from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains will not only supply you with important vitamins and nutrients, but also provide you with plenty of indigestible fiber necessary to keep your digestive tracts clean from carcinogens and other nasty bugs that, if left in there, can cause damage and disease. If you’re truly serious about eating healthy to prevent diseases, read ‘The China Study’, by T. Colin Campbell; it’s eye opening and might change your entire perspective on food.

Another way to extend your life through your diet might be to not eat so much. Studies have shown that eating 75% of your normal caloric intake can extend longevity – at least in rats. Scientists saw that rats that were fed less lived longer, healthier lives. The idea is that starvation may activate a survival gene that slows down cell metabolism, allowing the cell to live longer in order to search for more food. For the past two years a human study on this phenomenon has been ongoing at Tufts University. So far, no one has died. I wonder if they know they only have to make it to 2045. A healthy side effect of this approach would be the lack of any illnesses associated with obesity. An important note for the subjects of the study is that they must get all of their essential nutrients…. Malnutrition would defeat the purpose. And one little asterisk here, I am in no way suggesting anorexia or any other type of eating disorder as a technique for weight loss. This starvation idea is a relatively new theory on life extension. Weight loss is just a byproduct. I only suggest temporary anorexia when I am on dates and short on cash.

Exercise your mind. If you do make it to 2045, I’m sure you don’t want your brain cells to have wasted away. You want to take all your faculties with you. The brain is like any other part of your body – you’ve got to use it, or you loose it. Do mental exercises. Constantly challenge your intellect with games or tasks that force you to calculate and memorize. Push ups for your noggin. Learn a new language. Play sudoku. Do crossword puzzles. Take a class. Learn to count cards in blackjack. Join an improv comedy group. Challenging your mind keeps it sharp and fights mental atrophy and dementia.

I think we have a legitimate shot at getting to 2045. Of course there are no guarantees and it will take a certain amount of just plain luck. But we can definitely increase our chances. What will happen when we get there? Will they download our conscious being into a bio-cyborg? Will they grow spare parts they can pop into us when the old ones wear out? Or will they just grow an entire clone of us – the strapping 19 year old version – and then just transplant our brains over to the fresh body? It might not be as awful as it sounds. Big Brother sounded scary – turns out it was just Facebook. We can all make it if we take care of ourselves. And look both ways before crossing the street. …especially on New Year’s Eve 2044.